Cycling: Tour de France: Boardman's flying start: British sprinter breaks speed record to lay first claim to yellow jersey | The Independent Cycling: Tour de France: Boardman's flying start: British sprinter breaks speed record to lay first claim to yellow jersey Saturday 2 July 1994 23:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Online CHRIS BOARDMAN became only the second Briton to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France when he won yesterday's Prologue time trial here. In humid conditions, the 25- year-old Merseysider beat Miguel Indurain, winner of the Tour for the past three years, over the 4.4-mile course on the streets of Lille, using the Lotus- developed bike that helped him to Olympic gold. 'The next thing I would like to do is to take the yellow jersey to England,' Boardman said afterwards. 'It's probably the only time it will go to England in my professional career so we're going to fight very hard to keep it.' 'From now on every day is a bonus for me. There is no longer any pressure on me. It's on Indurain and Rominger. They have to win the Tour.

I have hit my objective.' Tommy Simpson was the first Briton to wear yellow, for one day in the Pyrenees in 1962. Five years later, he died after collapsing on the Ventoux mountain in extreme heat. Indurain was 15 seconds slower yesterday as Boardman averaged 34mph - a Tour record - to finish in 7min 49sec with Toni Rominger of Switzerland third, 19 seconds slower. Boardman will wear the yellow jersey on today's first road stage, over 145 miles from Lille to Armentieres. Boardman's compatriot Sean Yates, a Tour veteran, was 54th, 51 seconds behind. To beat Indurain by 15 seconds is impressive, but sprinters can cut that to pieces in a matter of days. ''I have to be very careful of that time gap. My team must help keep the sprinters at bay,' Boardman said. 'I gained valuable experience when I held the leader's yellow jersey in the Dauphine Libere race for two days.

In this race you have to be a bit of a racehorse, a decathlete, and a chess player, to survive.' 'It is a bonus for me that the Tour is going to England,' Boardman said. 'I could have gone faster from the start but I did not want to blow up. The Olympics taught me how to handle the pressure, but this is a different league, even to the Olympics. 'I didn't use the brakes today. If I crash, I crash. I was at 101 per cent. For this year my first objective was the prologue. It's like a dream for me. I have always watched the Tour de France and for me to be in it is incredible.' It was Boardman's 11th victory since he turned professional last September with a winning debut. In his first outing for the French team GAN, he won the Eddy Merckx Grand Prix time trial in Brussels. Two years ago his victory in the Olympic 4,000m pursuit in Barcelona brought Britain's first cycling gold medal for 72 years.

Boardman, a time-trial specialist, was always touted as one of the favourites to take the Prologue after six wins this season, five of them in solo rides. But Indurain, despite being beaten in the Tour of Italy this year, was expected to mount a formidable challenge in a discipline he has dominated since his first Tour de France win in 1991. The 33-year-old Rominger, however, was also delighted with his performance, which kept him in Indurain's shadow. Rominger enjoyed a tremendous start to the season by winning the Spanish Vuelta, the Paris-Nice and the Tour of the Basque Country, while Indurain suffered his first defeat in a major Tour since the 1991 Tour of Spain when he finished third in the Giro d'Italia earlier this month. 'People are predicting the start of his decline,' his team- mate Gerard Rue, of France, said, 'but I can assure you that he's just as strong as last year and that there's plenty more to come for him.

He's hungry.' The time trial specialists, Alex Zuelle and Armand de las Cuevas of France, considered as possible contenders for victory, had strong rides to finish fourth and fifth respectively. The Italian Claudio Chiappucci, more at ease in the mountains than in time trials, came a surprising ninth, but there was disappointment for his compatriot Gianni Bugno, who finished in 63rd place, 54 seconds down the field. (Photograph omitted) BBC SPORT | TOUR DE FRANCE | Britain at the Tour Wednesday, 28 June, 2000, 12:06 GMT Britain at the Tour Sean Yates celebrates his yellow jersey in the 1994 Tour As Chris Boardman lines up for his last attempt at the three-week marathon, David Millar becomes the 53rd Briton to try his hand at the Tour de France this summer. Although UK cycling has always lived in the shadow of its continental neighbours, 22 riders from Britain have successfully completed at least one race.

As with Boardman and Millar this year, the baton tends to get handed from one generation to another, with only one race since 1955 failing to feature a Briton on the start list. This is our guide to Britain's Top 10 Tour riders, based on races ridden and honours won. 1. Robert Millar Tours: 11 (1983-1993) Finishes: 8 Best finish: 4th, 1984 (British record) Stage wins: 3 King of the Mountains winner 1984, only Briton to take major jersey to Paris Millar's achievement is clear - the only Briton to finish a Tour in the top five and win a major prize in Paris. He also helped the sport gain daily television coverage in Britain when his career coincided with that of brilliant Irishmen Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche. The era also saw a British trade team, ANC-Halfords, make an unsuccessful assault on the 1987 Tour as the sport gained a new audience. Millar was a pure mountain climber, light but very powerful on the slopes.

In 1983, he won a stage of his first Tour in the Pyrenees, his country's first victory for eight years, before finishing 14th. A year later he jumped 10 places, when a second Pyrenean win also came his way, as well as the famous polka dot jersey for the Tour's best climber. He returned to the stage-winner's podium in 1989, a race which saw him become the only Briton with two top 10 finishes. And despite the spelling and their shared Scottish nationality, Robert is no relation to this year's debutant David Millar. 2. Barry Hoban Tours: 12 (a British record, 1964-78) Finishes: 11 (British record) Best finish: 33rd, 1968 Stage wins: 8 (British record) Just as Millar was the name to watch in the 1980s, so Hoban was a true contender in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Neither man wore the yellow jersey, but that was neither specialist's true target.

Hoban was a sprinter-roadman, a star of flat Tour stages and one-day classics, whose eight Tour stage wins is a British record unlikely to be broken in the near future. The first came in 1967, while two years later he won two consecutive stages, a double win repeated in 1973. One of the 1969 wins was in Bordeaux, the city visited more times by the Tour than any except Paris, and the one every sprinter wants to win. Hoban proved his class when he was victorious there for a second time in 1975. And unlike some fast-men who get off their bike at the sight of a mountain, Hoban had stamina with an incredible 11 finishes from 12 Tours. 3.

Chris Boardman Tours: 6 to date (1994-present) Finishes: 2 Best finish: 39th, 1996 Stage wins: 3 Yellow jerseys: 3 races (British record, 1994, 1997, 1998) Holds record for fastest stage in Tour history at Lille, 1994 Boardman is the only Briton to have worn the leader's yellow jersey in more than one Tour. Boardman was only the second to wear yellow in the Tour He is also the only rider to take it with a record speed in his first appearance in the race. His prologue time trial of 1994 made quite an impact back home. He was the first Britain to wear yellow in 32 years and just in time for the race to spend two heady days in southern England. Boardman's speciality is the Tour prologue, the short test which decides the first yellow jersey. The stage is basically the unofficial world championship for the distance, and Boardman has won three of these fast and furious challenges.

Last year the rider from the Wirral finished his second Tour, having suffered bad luck or crashes in all races except 1996 and 1999. 4. Tom Simpson Tours: 7 (1960-67) Finishes: 3 Best finish: 6th, 1962 Stage wins: 3 Yellow jersey: 1 (1962) First Briton to wear yellow and finish in top 10 Simpson was the man who turned the dream of a Briton in yellow into a reality but then tragically died during the Tour itself. Simpson on the Tour just days before he died 1962 was Simpson's best year, when he wore the yellow jersey on his way to sixth place in Paris. He was also to become world road race champion although the popular rider will always be remembered as the committed competitor who died during the Tour. It happened on the baking slopes of Mont Ventoux in 1967, when Simpson collapsed and got back on his bike before falling again, never to recover.

Tests showed amphetamines in his bloodstream, although this fact has not been allowed to diminish his reputation, since use was widespread in the peloton of the 1960s. 5. Sean Yates Tours: 12 (joint British record) Finishes: 9 Best finish: 45th, 1989 Stage wins: 1 Yellow jersey: 1 (1994) Yates emerged with Millar just as coverage of the sport was increasing, and gave years of loyal service as one of the very best domestiques in the bunch. Typically for a product of the British racing scene he was also a strong time triallist, and gained his stage win in an individual test at Wasquehal. Some Tour stage wins come from a lucky break, but this was no such thing - he had beaten the world's best in the "race of truth". His yellow jersey came on one of Britain's best Tours, that of 1994. It was just days after Boardman had become the first Briton in 32 years to wear the jersey and also after Yates had ridden past his own English home.

He was a popular race leader throughout the peloton and thoroughly deserved another day in the limelight as his career approached its end. Yates is now managing the British Linda McCartney team, which hopes one day to appear at the Tour. 6. Michael Wright Tours: 8 (1964-74) Finishes: 3 Best finish: 24th, 1965 Stage wins: 3 With Tommy Simpson's death, 1967 was a tragic Tour for the British. Yet it was also the first time the country had won two stages in the same race, with Hoban's first win coming alongside Wright's second. Wright won three stages in his eight Tours, as he and Hoban provided their country with the most consistent period of stage wins it has known. 7.

Brian Robinson Tours: 7 (1955-62) Finishes: 5 Best finish: 14th, 1956 Stage wins: 2 Shares with Tony Hoar distinction of first Briton to finish Tour, in 1955 Three British riders - including the intriguingly-named Pierre Gachon - made Britain's debut in the 1937 Tour But it was 1955 before anybody tried again, with nine riders led by Robinson who finished 29th that year and 14th in 1956. By 1957 he was the only Briton on the startline but a year later made an even more significant breakthrough, with Brest in Brittany seeing Britain's first stage win in the great race. It was a feat he repeated in 1959 between Annecy and Chalon-sur-Saone. That race which saw a second top 20 finish for being Britain's Tour pioneer, and by the time he left the scene, more riders were crossing the channel to start the race, with a record 11 taking part in 1961. 8.

Max Sciandri Tours: 7 to date (1990-present) Finishes: 4 Best finish: 47th, 1995 Stage wins: 1 Apart from Boardman, Britain's only other stage winner of the 1990s has been the man born in Derby to an Italian father and English mother. Sciandri in national colours Despite his Italian address, Sciandri rides for Britain and won Olympic bronze in 1996 for the country of his birth. That was a year after his only Tour stage win over a route from the Alps into St Etienne which is repeated for the 1999 race. His chances of Tour victory are few and far between since he does not excel in the high mountains, and is not the fastest sprinter. But intermediate stages are perfect for him, as are the one-day classics in which he has an impressive record. Sciandri now rides for Yates at the McCartney squad and will miss this year's Tour. 9. Graham Jones Tours: 5 (1980-87) Finishes: 4 Best finish: 20th, 1981 10.

Paul Sherwen Tours: 7 (1978-86) Finishes: 5 Best finish: 70th, 1978 Jones and Sherwen are the cream of the many other British professionals who have gone to the Tour without winning a stage or enjoying a day in yellow. Both are also responsible for continuing to help the sport through work with the media, and each helped British cycling bridge a tough period between Hoban's stage wins and Millar's mountain raids. Sherwen's debut came in the Hoban's last appearance - 1978. Jones reinforced the numbers from the 1980, and reached the high point of 20th place in Paris in only his second Tour. Sherwen was a TV commentator when Jones ended his Tour career by guiding the inexperienced ANC-Halfords team through a difficult debut. And Jones now follows the Tour with BBC Radio 5 Live, while Sherwen works for Channel 4 television. Best of the rest Of the other 42 riders, only Vic Denson (1961-68) rode more than five Tours, while three others have managed top 50 finishes at the race's end.

Derek Harrisson finished 32nd in 1969, and Victor Sutton 37th in 1959. Probably the unluckiest man to miss our top 10 is Alan Ramsbottom, who finished a heady 16th in the 1963 race. Others enjoyed success on the continent including Malcolm Elliott, who finished two Tours de France and also won the points jersey outright in the Tour of Spain in 1989. Search BBC Sport Online The day the Tour de France came to Hampshire (From Daily Echo) The day the Tour de France came to Hampshire Le Tour sweeps through Winchester THEY hung out of windows, partied on the rooftops and created a fluttering sea of flags on the ancient streets below. Clinging limpet-like from every vantage point, not one among the 20,000 crowd dared miss it. Roads in the old capital had been blocked, offices abandoned, shops emptied and schools closed.

Beneath a cloudless sky, the Mayor could be seen making final adjustments to his camera; a former Archbishop of Canterbury was craning his neck for a better view; and street artists and musicians entertained those packed four, five and six deep on the pavements. And through it all snaked a one-mile long public address system keeping all informed of the approaching drama. It wasn’t just the people of Winchester who were playing the waiting game. In Bishop’s Waltham, the elderly residents of a care home had a prime spot on the roadside to watch the spectacle while French berets appeared en vogue for a younger generation. And in Overton, on the Andover- Basingstoke road, almost the entire 3,000-strong village seemed to be hanging over crash-barriers on the narrow main street, cheering wildly at anything that moved. Here the parish council had encouraged shopkeepers to enter a best-dressed window contest for the occasion – and the owner of an antiques business appeared odds-on to win. His balloon-festooned premises displayed a bike which would surely impress the judges. Moreover he offered wine – but Australian rather than French plonk since the latter was, in his view, ‘undrinkable’.

Meanwhile the music of Edith Piaf drifted over the massed ensemble outside, courtesy of his tape player. Hampshire had never seen anything like it. That day one million people, countless folding chairs, an assortment of bouncy castles and even giant funfairs lined a 116-mile circular route which started and finished in Portsmouth. Even a gigantic bicycle-shaped crop circle had appeared in a field near Cheesefoot off the A272. Meanwhile, across the globe, half a billion people were glued to their televisions, watching Hampshire in anticipation. And it was all to see a race for madmen. That day – Thursday July 7, 1994 – the Tour de France came to Hampshire. Following Stage 4 of the race from Dover to Brighton the previous day, the world’s best riders emerged from Portsmouth’s historic dockyard for Stage 5, passing HMS Victory as they went. Now the road north lay ahead – to Wickham , Bishop’s Waltham, Winchester and Andover – before arcing round to Basingstoke and back south to Portsmouth. It was only the second time ‘Le Tour’ had visited these shores.

And the first time was just a token stage down a stretch of the new Plympton by-pass in Devon in 1973 which wasn’t particularly successful. This was altogether different. The two stages of ‘Le Tour en Angleterre’ gripped the entire nation – and gave welcome publicity to the newly-opened Channel Tunnel. In Hampshire, the wait for the chaingang seemed to last an eternity. The excitement mounts as crowds await the arrival fo the peloton To fill the time, octogenarian Alec Smith rode down Overton high street ahead of the main event to ‘win’ the Tour de France. The cheering locals loved it. T-shirt sellers were meanwhile trying to offload their ‘Le Tour’ merchandise while dour French gendarmes tightened their advance guard around the route. Two among the vast Winchester crowd had already fainted and still the main pack of riders – the ‘peloton’ – was nowhere to be seen. Then a bizarre sight. A convoy of advertising vehicles entered the city, bedecked in apples, apricots, computers and Kellogg’s packets. Next came a speeding cavalcade of race officials, media and more gendarmerie, their horns blaring.

Then, like a bolt from the blue, four riders appeared, riding hard with eyeballs out. The Mayor, despite his meticulous camera preparations, completely missed them. Three minutes later the main peloton whooshed through. And then it was gone, heading out towards Andover. The excitement may have been shortlived but the peloton of 1994 had also provided a snapshot of cycling’s turbulent future. For contained within that flash of whirring colour was a brilliant Tour newcomer destined for tragic implosion – and another heading for disgraceful infamy. But more of them later. First, the home favourites. Many of those lining Hampshire’s roads simply wanted to glimpse Tour debutant Chris Boardman, Britain’s Olympic champion in Barcelona two years earlier. Indeed, he had already won the Tour’s opening time trial in Lille on July 2 and gone on to wear the overall leader’s yellow jersey for the first three days. No Briton had worn the maillot jaune since Tom Simpson 32 years earlier. Then there was fellow Brit Sean Yates, a seasoned Tour veteran who had postponed retirement for a chance of glory on home soil. Alas, Boardman and Yates were merely the warm-up act for that year’s Tour.

While Italian Nicola Minali was to win the Hampshire stage, waiting in the wings for the overall winner’s prize was the son of a Spanish farmer with a quite remarkable physical engine. The enigmatic Miguel Indurain was powered by enormous lungs and a heart so huge it only beat 28 times a minute – compared to 60-80 for a normal, untrained adult. He had already won the three previous Tours and was destined to record a fourth in 1994. Following the Tour’s two-day sojourn to Britain, the peloton returned to France where Indurain grabbed the yellow jersey on Stage 9. He kept it through the Pyrenees and Alps and was still wearing it when the circus arrived on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on July 24 to conclude Stage 21 and the race. Indurain had covered the Tour’s 2,472 miles in 103 hours 38 minutes– averaging an astonishing 23.5mph. The following year he won again, his fifth in a row, and joined an elite band of just three other five-time winners that included the great Eddy Merckx.

Dominant: Miguel Indurain But let’s return to 1994. While Indurain was the undisputed master that year, the class of ’94 included two new pupils who chose oblivion upon graduation. One was the exciting Marco Pantani from Italy’s Adriatic coast. Slight in build, he floated up mountains and finished his debut 1994 Tour in third place overall and as the best young rider. Pantani was a megastar in the making. He won the Tour in 1998 and, for good measure, was the victor of the gruelling Tour of Italy too, securing his place as a national icon in the process. He was adored by fans worldwide who bestowed the title ‘Il Pirata’ (the pirate) upon him in homage to the bandana and earrings which adorned his shaven head. Yet the life of this shy, vulnerable, complicated man was to end alone in a cheap hotel room following an apparent cocaine overdose. Dogged by doping allegations and his reputation destroyed, he had pursued self-destruction with disturbing singlemindedness. He left this world on Valentine’s Day 2004, aged just 34.

Meanwhile a young white-capped Texan was among the Hampshire peloton that day in July 1994. Lance Armstrong was to dominate the post – Indurain era of cycling, winning a record-breaking seven Tours between 1999 and 2005. Yet eight years and a crushing Oprah Winfrey confessional later, his name was airbrushed from cycling history when sport’s biggest drugs scandal was exposed. But those clouds were forming on a distant horizon that glorious summer’s day in Hampshire. When Minali crossed the finish line in Portsmouth after four hours, ten minutes of superhuman exertion, sporting history had been made. The county had witnessed the toughest mainstream sporting event on Earth. Yet normal life soon descended. A broken-down lorry had already caused a spectacular traffic jam in Overton. And in Winchester office staff were slowly trudging back to their desks. One was asked if his boss had minded his temporary absence. “Oh no”, he replied. “He was the first one out to line the route!” The Tour’s enchanting romanticism and sublime beauty had, it seemed, touched everyone. Even Brit hero Chris Boardman, shattered and soaked in sweat at the finish line, could hardly take it in.

Surveying the masses through welling eyes he simply said: “I’ll never forget this day as long as I live.” Tour de France 2012: live - Telegraph Tour de France Tour de France 2012: live All the action and colour from 199km seventh stage of the 99th edition of the Tour de France from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles. Reach for the sky: Chris Froome celebrates on the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles after the Team Sky rider won stage seven of the Tour Photo: AP This page will automatically update every 90 secondsOn Off • Froome wins stage seven on La Planche des Belles Filles • Wiggins takes overall lead as Team Sky dominate • Schleck and Menchov crack on steep ascent WRAP: Chris Froome (Team Sky) won stage six of the Tour de France after the Kenyan-born climbing specialist dropped Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) with one final kick on the steep slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles following a superb ride from the British outfit. Froome, also, took control in the mountains classification and will wear the polka dot jersey on Sunday.

Bradley Wiggins, Froome's team leader came in in third spot two seconds adrift of the stage winner to wrest the leader's yellow jersey off Fabian Cancellara as he became the first Briton since David Millar in 2000 to wear the famous maillot jaune. "It's an amazing feeling, it just went perfect," said Wiggins afterwards. "I'm in yellow and that's to be savoured and enjoyed, it was a childhood dream. "We're in the driving seat now, the next few days we'll look to consolidate this, more so in the time-trial and then we've got a rest day and we're halfway through the Tour then. "It's not over but you know, everything that's to come in this Tour aside, I'm in the yellow jersey and that's something to be savoured and enjoyed, it's been a childhood dream of mine and you know ... here I am. "I promised my son yesterday I'd take the yellow jersey so yeah, it's nice." Team Sky now lead in three of the five competitions after they retained their lead in the teams competition while have three riders in the top 10 in the general classification.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the only four other British riders to have worn yellow ... Tom Simpson: 1962 (one day) Tom Simpson, until recently regarded as the greatest ever British road cyclist, became the first Briton to wear the maillot jaune, the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey, following the 12th stage of the 49th edition of the race. Simpson, though, lost it 24 hours later following the 18.5km mountain time-trial from Luchon to Superbagnères. Chris Boardman: 1994, 1997 & 1998 (six days) Chris Boardman made a dream debut at the Tour in 1994 when he beat five-time winner Miguel Indurain by 15 seconds in the prologue in Lille to claim his first maillot jaune before successfully defending the jersey for two days. The time-trial specialist from Merseyside wnet on to spend a further three days in yellow in 1997 and 1998 after winning the prologues in Rouen and Dublin respectively.

Sean Yates: 1994 (one day) The Team Sky directeur sportif and former team-mate of Lance Armstrong's solitary day in yellow came in the same year as Boardman's first after the Tour returned to its homeland. After one day in the maillot jaune, Yates lost it in controversial circumstances after his jersey was pulled by Danish rider Rolf Sorensen during an intermediate sprint and deny him a valuable time bonus. David Millar: 2000 (three days) David Millar, like Boardman six year's earlier, won his first leader's jersey on his debut Tour outing when the 23 year-old won the opening 16.5km time-trial at Futuroscope two seconds ahead of defending champion Armstrong before France's Laurent Jalabert took it off him two days later. ------------------------------------ CHRIS FROOME WINS THE STAGE! BRADLEY WIGGINS TAKES OVERALL LEAD AFTER TEAM SKY CONTROL FIRST MOUNTAIN STAGE! Wiggins launches fightback. Froome has gone. The Kenyan-born rider caught Evans before leaving him standing! Froome is going to win this... Evans has attacked!

16.12: As it stands: 1. Froome, 2. Wiggins, 3. Evans, 4. Nibali, 5. Taaramae. 16.11 / 1.5km to go: Froome takes over for Team Sky. Menchov and Rolland have been dropped now. 16.10 Cancellara is digging deep and not giving up his maillot jaune without a fight. Team Sky, though, are still in control. Fantastic stuff. 16.08 Roche regaining contact with lead group. Evans on the fourth wheel, Nibali fifth. Denis Menchov sixth. 16.06 Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali and Pierre Rolland marking the Sky boys. Nicholas Roche has popped. 16.05 /3km to go: Yellow jersey trails Team Sky's lead group by 30secs. 16.04 / 4km to go: The peloton has been blown to pieces. Frank Schleck is struggling! Team Sky are controlling this. Stylvain Chavanel and Fabian Cancellara trail the Team Sky boys.

Can see Wiggins taking yellow this evening. 16.01 Michael Rogers is pacing Bradley Wiggins's team up. A Europcar rider (Pierre Rolland) appears to be making a sneaky move. Richie Porte and Chris Froome are alongside Wiggins. 16.00 The peloton, led by Team Sky, are about to swallow up Sorensen. 15.58 / 6km to go: Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) leads escapees on to the final climb of the day, the category one La Planche des Belles Filles. Here we go ... 15.55 Alejando Valverde (Movistar) has now too sufferd a mechanical - puncture I think - team-mate Vladmir Karpets gave him his wheel. Escapees' lead slashed to 20secs with 7km remaining. Peter Sagan has now been dropped by the bunch. 15.52 Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Lotto-Belisol's general classication rider, has suffered a mechanical. The Belgian now trails the peloton by over a minute.

15.50 / 12km to go: Cyril Gautier (Europcar) has popped and will soon be caught by the chasing peloton who now trail the leading six-man group by 50secs. Garmin-Sharp still on the front of the bunch with Team Sky tucked closely behind. 15.45 / 15km to go: Escapees' lead down to 1min 21secs. Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) gave a quick kick to see if he could drop the other six but he was soon reeled back. Cyril Gautier (Europcar), though, is struggling to keep with the tempo. 15.30 David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) is now doing his turn on the front. Until the road ramps up to lung-bursting gradients in the final kilometre I'm thinking the current teams - Garmin-Sharp, BMC Racing and Team Sky will stay out on the front of the peloton. Garmin will be hoping their man Dan Martin can win the stage while the others, probably, will be more concerned in keeping their men (Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins) out of trouble.

15.25 Brendan Gallagher agrees that Garmin-Sharp are overdue a bit of good fortune: "Garmin-Sharp have endured a miserable time of it with injuries and getting caught up with the latest Lance Armstrong nonsense but they are never down for long and there is a thought that they might be working today for Dan Martin - the Irishman with the Brummie accent - who if fit and healthy would normally fancy the steep finish." 15.15 Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who I seem to rememeber crashing during the opening prologue seven days ago, has joined Tyler Farrar behind the peloton who, in turn, trail the seven-man breakaway by 4mins 40secs with around 35kms remaining. There are going to some fireworks on the La Planche des Belles Filles. Outside bet, Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp)? Speaking of Garmin-Sharp, Johan Van Summeren - the Belgian who came over the finishing line yesterday over 16mins off the pace, has just been spotted picking up some bidons for his team-mates after struggling on the Col du Mont de Fourche. Chapeau!

David Zabriske (I think it's him?) is doing his turn on the front of the peloton. Jonathan Vaughters' team could do with some good news today ... 15.00 Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) has taken another two points in the mountains classification after cresting the Col du Mont de Fourche ahead of Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank). Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) has been shelled out of the back of the bunch and his face is now etched with pain. The escapees' lead has dropped to below four minutes. Geraint Thomas, the Team Sky rider currently on Olympics duty, clearly hasn't been paying too much attention to this year's race ... &amp;lt;noframe&amp;gt;Twitter: Geraint Thomas - Maybe someone who lost time yesterday will hit out early, while Brad n the other hitters watch each other?! Hesdejal?!&amp;lt;/noframe&amp;gt; 14.50 The breakaway are now on the Col du Mont de Fourche climb and lead the main bunch by 4mins 40secs with just over 50km remaining.

Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) is getting a tad agitated with the spectators and appeared to give one over-eared punter a rugby-style push off. &amp;lt;noframe&amp;gt;Twitter: Lionel Birnie - I've waited all day to see the Tour de France. I'm wearing Speedos. I've got my stupid massive flag. It's all about me. Look at me on telly!&amp;lt;/noframe&amp;gt; 14.40 BMC Racing have taken over on the front of the peloton followed closely by Team Sky and a few Liquigas-Cannondale riders whose own general classification rider Vincenzo Nibali has been busying himself criticising Bradley Wiggins in today's L'Equipe. saying that he didn't rate the Briton. &amp;lt;noframe&amp;gt;Twitter: Daniel Friebe - 'Honestly, Wiggins doesn't impress me.

I've had better results than him and I'm better in the mountains.' Nibali in L'Equipe.&amp;lt;/noframe&amp;gt; 14.30 Second climb of the day is approaching the 3.1km category three Col du Mont de Fourche. After taking the points on the first climb of the day I wouldn't be surpised to see Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) go for it again. 14.25 Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) has been spotted collected bidons for his team-mates. What do you call a domestique in the rainbow jersey? A super-duper domestique?Team Sky, meanwhile, are riding on the front of the peloton as they stay out of trouble. 14.20 More from Brendan who, like the rest of the world, has been mightily impressed by a certain young Slovak this week: While we are understandably consumed with the fortunes of Bradley and Cavendish there's absolutely no doubt the story of the first week is Peter Sagan.

The self-styled "Tourminator" has been a class apart I have a sneaking suspicion Sagan might be the biggest all-round talent the sport has unnearthed since Eddy Merckx. Already he is dominating opponents mentally as much as physically. There's nothing he can't do and that includes, in due course, winning grand tours. To these eyes he is also a clear favourite, at present, to win the Olympic road race title. As an added bonus his parody Twitter account is also hilarious. Meanwhile, any talk that Sagan has requested his Liquigas-Cannondale team-mates wear green make-up to match his Incredible Hulk-type celebrations is pure speculation. Honest ... 14.00 Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) scooped up the two points there while Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) took his leftovers. The peloton, led by Team Sky's Christian Knees, trail by 4mons 50 secs. 13.58 The escapees, led by Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana), are now on the category three Col de Grosse Pierre climb.

Three points on offer here in the mountains classification - two for the first man over the summit, one for the second rider. 13.50 Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) led the main bunch over the intermediate sprint ahead of Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge). Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) didn't bother contesting it. Full details here: Pos Bradley Wiggins plans to keep yellow jersey in the Tour de France | Sport | The Guardian Bradley Wiggins plans to keep yellow jersey in the Tour de France • Bradley Wiggins intends holding lead for rest of Le Tour • Chris Froome takes stage for Team Sky in Tour de France Bradley Wiggins took the overall lead in the Tour de France after the mountainous seventh stage into La Planche des Belles Filles.

Photograph: Laurent Cipriani/AP William Fotheringham at La Planche des Belles Filles Saturday 7 July 2012 14.48 EDT First published on Saturday 7 July 2012 14.48 EDT Close This article is 4 years old In a potentially decisive moment in this year's Tour de France , Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to wear the fabled leader's yellow jersey in 12 years, joining the small elite group of Britons who have led the Tour in the half-century since Tom Simpson became the first to pull on the maillot jaune. Capping a dominant performance by the Londoner's Team Sky squad, their Kenyan-born, British-licensed rider Chris Froome won the stage and took the polka-dot jersey of King of the Mountains leader. A year to the day since he crashed out of the 2011 Tour with a broken collarbone, Wiggins now has a chance of becoming the first Briton to win cycling's toughest event.

At the summit of the Planche des Belles Filles climb in the Vosges mountains, only two other contenders for this year's race managed to keep in touch with Wiggins and Froome: the defending Tour champion Cadel Evans of Australia and the Italian Vincenzo Nibali, winner of the Vuelta a España in 2010. Overall, the race remains finely poised, with Evans just 10 seconds behind Wiggins, and Nibali at 16sec, margins that can be lost and won within sight of any stage finish. "It's enormous," said the triple Olympic gold medallist. "I realise how historic the Tour is and the position I'm in now. I have the utmost respect for the yellow jersey and it's something I'm planning to keep now. You can't get cocky and choose when you take the yellow jersey. I feel very fortunate to be in this position after a crazy week. I'd rather be in yellow than in hospital like half the peloton." Before Wiggins, the last Briton to wear yellow in the Tour was David Millar, the Scot who won the prologue time trial in the 2000 race.

Chris Boardman – Wiggins's mentor at one point in his track racing days – was a prologue specialist who wore the maillot jaune in 1994, 1997 and 1998, while Sean Yates, now directeur sportif at Sky, and Simpson had the jersey on their shoulders for a day each, in 1994 and 1962 respectively. The closest any Briton has come to winning the race was in 2009, when Wiggins finished fourth in his breakthrough performance in the race, equalling the record set by the Scot Robert Millar 25 years earlier. The Team Sky leader started this Tour as the bookies' favourite, and rode his luck in the opening week as crashes eliminated 16 of the 198-man field. He has already won three of the most prestigious shorter stage races in cycling this season, taking overall victory in the Paris-Nice in March, the Tour de Romandie in early May, and the Critérium du Dauphiné stage race in early June.

The withdrawals following Black Friday's crashes now total 13 with Garmin-Sharp the worst-hit team, with both leaders out Published: 7 Jul 2012 British cyclist Bradley Wiggins finishes in the yellow jersey at the end of the seventh stage, leading reigning champion Cadel Evans by 10 seconds Published: 7 Jul 2012

Question: Who in 1994 was the first Briton since Tommy Simpson to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France?
Answer: CHRIS BOARDMAN